Naked, once again.

I've just physically and mentally recovered from the 15th annual NCN Convention. Wow. It was exhausting and amazing, despite the fact I only drew 2 hang-up-worthy caricatures. I'll spare the pics for now, as there are hundreds and hundreds online already (maybe next post, after I go through my discs of images). A worthy vacation and schooling for anyone interested in exaggeration (portraiture, caricature, cartooning, animation, design, etc).

Well, I'm listening to Superdrag and at the 1-hr Post-RedBull High, so I'm feeling good. I moved to New York and am finally settling into the new job, the new home, and the new city. I live in a great place in Queens (sunnyside gardens) and work in East Midtown, Manhattan. It's a great change, and I'm looking forward to being sick of Winter (figure that one out).

Lately, I've been helping out with SO's projects, where I can. Most of it is broadcast work, so I'm left doing the little tasks, but a couple projects and pitches have relied on my drawings (looking good, with the caricature animation soon!), so it's definitely a fun environment where I still have lots of time to draw. I'm catching up on freelance and getting some progress rolling, hoping to still have my book out before March... we'll see.

Anyway, with work and moving so heavy, it's hard to really put the FULL GUSTO into each project, and I've been doing a little bit of freelance among big projects. This work is for the Santa Barbara Independent, next week. Not sure what the angle is, but they just want images of each contributor, I guess to head their section of a topic. I'm posting these under the "naked" angle because it's not my best work. Not that I didn't try or that I failed, but I had such a quick deadline and little time to do it in... this causes shortcuts and less time to plan/sketch. These are the bread and butter of illustration (from the little I know about it) - the rush-jobs. They look good and okay, but as an artist you know you can do better. This is great inspiration to work harder, and motivation to do better with the rush-jobs. My friend Tom Richmond once stated in his amazing blog that he envies those that can rush a job. I wish I never did. There's so much more satisfaction in finishing something to the level and attention it deserves... but I guess that's why they pay me is so little (tee hee).

Anyway, these were each completed in about an hour or two (depending on the subject and planning the exaggeration) with varying degrees of distortion and exaggeration/design elements. At first, I was going pretty far with them, then the art director (a great guy, not his fault) told me to pull back a bit, because these were donated articles and respectful, not goofy or poking fun. I tried to take it easy on a few, after some discussion, and feel they are fairly consistent, nonetheless, but not my best work.

I feel it's important to share (after all, this is a BLOG not my PR website) the mediocre as well as the proud.

I'll try to keep true to this. Now that I'm a bit more settled I'll use this blog to show more of the day-to-day things that I'm working on, rather than the polished stuff... but who knows.